History of online games
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Background of technologies
The
Later, in the 1970s,
PLATO
In the 1960s, Rick Bloome implemented SpaceWar! as a two-player game on PLATO.[2]
In the early 1970s, the
Networked host-based systems
A key goal of early network systems such as ARPANET and JANET was to allow users of "dumb" text-based terminals attached to one host computer (or, later, to terminal servers) to interactively use programs on other host computers. This meant that games on those systems were accessible to users in many different locations by the use of programs such as telnet.
Most of the early host-based games were single-player, and frequently originated and were primarily played at universities. A sizable proportion was written on
Eventually, though, multiplayer host-based games on networked computers began to be developed. One of the most important of these was
In the summer of 1973,
In 1983,
In May 1993,
X Window System games
In 1986, MIT and DEC released the X Window System, which provided two important capabilities in terms of game development. Firstly, it provided a widely deployed graphics system for workstation computers on the Internet. A number of workstation graphics systems existed, including Bell Labs' BLIT, SGI's IRIS GL, Carnegie Mellon's Andrew Project, DEC's UWS (Ultrix Workstation Software), VWS (Vax Workstation Software), and Sun's NeWS, but X managed over time to secure cross-platform dominance, becoming available for systems from nearly all workstation manufacturers, and coming from MIT, had particular strength in the academic arena. Since Internet games were being written mostly by college students, this was critical.
Secondly, X had the capability of using computers as
The first of these remote display games was Xtrek. Based on a PLATO system game,
Commercial timesharing services
As time-sharing technology matured, it became practical for companies with excess capacity on their expensive computer systems to sell that capacity. Service bureaus such as Tymshare (founded 1966) dedicated to selling time on a single computer to multiple customers sprang up. The customers were typically businesses that did not have the need or money to purchase and manage their own computer systems.
In 1979, two time-sharing companies,
In 1984, CompuServe debuted
The LINKS was an online network launched for the
In 1987,
In 1987,
In 1988, Federation debuted on Compunet. It was a text-based online game, focused around the interstellar economy of the galaxy in the distant future. Players work their way up a series of ranks, each of which has a slightly more rewarding and interesting but difficult job attached, which culminates in the ownership of one's own "duchy", a small solar system. After some time on GEnie, in 1995 Federation moved to AOL. AOL made online games free in 1996, dropping surcharges to play, and the resulting load caused it to drop online game offerings entirely. IBGames, creators of Federation, started offering access to the game through its own website, making it perhaps the first game to transition off of an online service provider. IBGames kept the game operational until 2005 after most of the player base transitioned to the sequel, 2003's Federation II.
In 1990,
In 2000,
See also
- History of arcade video games
- History of massively multiplayer online games
- History of mobile games
- History of video games
- Online game
- Multiplayer video game
References
- ^ Andrew Rollings; Ernest Adams (2006). Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall.
- ^ David R. Woolley (1994). "PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community". thinkofit.com. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ David R. Woolley (1994). "PLATO: The Emergence of Online Community". thinkofit.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "MAD, Multi-Access Dungeon (1984–1986)". Lextrait.com. Archived from the original on December 17, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
- ^ "GRCRUN11". www.grcrun11.gr. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
- ^ "Sega Phone-Links Games: interactive coin-op gameplay demo'd between Tokyo and Osaka; Sega home video will have similar capabilities in the USA". RePlay. Vol. 18, no. 12. September 1993. pp. 43–4.
- ^ "The Story of XPilot". May 31, 2008. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
- ^ Garfinkel, Simson L. (April 1989). "The Hackers are Still Ahead" (PDF). Technology Review. pp. 4–7. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
- ^ The LINKS (Network), MSX Resource Center
- ^ "Morningstar, C. and F. R. Farmer (1990), "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat", The First International Conference on Cyberspace, Austin, TX, USA". Fudco.com. Retrieved June 21, 2010.
- ^ Takano, Masaharu (September 11, 1995). "How the Famicom Modem was Born". Nikkei Electronics (in Japanese). English translation by GlitterBerri.
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: External link in
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- ^ Sega Is Innovation, Gaming Target
- ^ IGN Staff (February 23, 2001). "64DD: Broken Promises". Retrieved May 4, 2019.